combs



March 10, 1964 E. COMBS VESTIBULE PRESSURE EQUALIZER Filed A ril 4, 1962INVENTQR.

EDGAR L. COMES t-Z fl v ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,123,867VESTIBULE PRESSURE EQUALIZER Edgar L. Combs, Pekin, Ill. Fiied Apr. 4,1962, Ser. No. 185,024 1 Claim. (Cl. 20-16) This invention relates to animprovement in two-way pneumatic valves for equalizing the differentialair pressures experienced in the operation of storm doors associatedwith building vestibules.

It is well known in the prior art to provide pneumatic relief valves instorm doors to neutralize the compression or rarefaction of the air in avestibule occasioned by the piston action of such a door as it is openedor closed.

The present invention teaches an improved housing and geometry of suchequalizing valves which permits the inexpensive manufacture andunobtrusive installation of such an article.

A feature of this concept is to utilize a design of casing whichprotects the poppet type valve areas used by this invention from directloading by exterior wind velocities which could interfere with theproper equalizing operation of the device.

It is therefore the principal object of the present invention to providea design of an equalizing vestibule valve and housing therefor which canbe fabricated largely from sheet metal stampings, and which permits arecessed installation flush with the surface of the door in such a waythat the valve areas cannot be subjected to the stagnation pressures ofdirect wind velocities.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a design ofequalizing vestibule valve structure which is inherently weather-proof.

It is still another object of the present invention to prevent directwind velocities from impinging on the valves of a vestibule doorpressure equalizer by providing a casing therefor which cooperates withits intsallation recess in said door to form a deflection duct for theequalizing air flow.

For other objects, and a better understanding of the present invention,reference may be had to the following detailed description taken inconnection with the accompany'ing drawings, in which FIGURE 1 is afragmentary perspective view of a vestibule door with the present valveinstalled therein,

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the door taken on line 2-2 ofFIG. 1 and looking in elevation upon one end of the valve,

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the valve looking upwardly upon line 3-3of FIG. 2 showing the vent holes in the valve casing,

FIG. 4 is a frontal view of the chassis plate of valve as seen on line4-4 of FIG. 3,

FIG. 5 is a transverse sectional view of the chassis plate taken on line5-5 of FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a modification of the design of FIG. 1 whichutilizes the same casing thereof, but which has a modified valve andsupport, and

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken through line 7- 7 of FIG. 6.

Referring now to the FIGURES 1 through 5, it may be seen that a door 11which is to receive the subject device is provided with two opposingrectangular recesses 12 and 13 the sum of whose depths is less than thethickness of the door by the thickness of a residual perforated web 14.The web 14 thus forms a rectangular frame for an aperture piercing thedoor and to which the subject device may be secured, preferably bybolts.

'I wo identical sheet metal cover cup casing stampings 16 and 17 areeach provided with a flange 18- and a plurality of vent holes 19 whoseaxes are substantially parallel to the flanges 13', so that the outersurfaces of cup casings 16 and 17 are impervious, and are positioned insubstantially coplanar relation with the inside and outside surfaces ofthe door 11. Bolts 21 are provided to secure flanges 18 to the door web14.

The equalizer device assembly includes a valve chassis plate 22 which issandwiched between the flanges 18 of casings 1'6 and 17. The plate 2 2is pierced by two valve apertures 23 and 24 which are normally closed bythe resilient poppet valve disks 26 and 27 respectively. Valve disks 26and 27 are secured to one end of cantilever leaf springs 28 and 29respectively by the bolts 31, washers 32, and nuts 33. Leaf springs 28and 29 are secured on opposite sides of plate 22 by bolt 34 and nut 35and serve to spring bias and position the valve disks 26 and '27 toclose apertures '23 and 24 respectively.

In operation, presuming door 11 to be an outside storm door leading intoa building vestibule, and presuming this door to be initially shut sothat casing 16 is facing the vestibule, the opening of door 11 outwardlyfrom the foregoing vestibule will tend to rarefy the air of thevestibule thereby tending to offer a substantial resistance to theopening of the door. However, this resultant differential pressurebetween the outdoors and the vestibule will appear via holes 19 and theshielded ducts formed between recesses 12 and 13 and cases 16 and 17,respectively, between the faces of plate 22. With suction on casing side16, and pressure on casing side 17, this pressure differential willovercome the bias of leaf spring 28 and cause valve disk 26 to move tothe dotted position shown in FIG. 5 thereby allowing air to flow throughaperture 23 so as to equalize the pressures and to negate the majorportion of the pneumatic door resistance.

Conversely, the subsequent closure of door 11 will set up a reversepressure differential whichwill be equalized by the displacement ofvalve disk 27 to the dotted position shown in FIG. 5.

It is to be noted that outside wind or rain is prevented from directimpingement on valve disks 26 and 27 by the circuitous pneumatic pathoffered by duct 13-47 and the vent holes 19.

In FIGS. 6 and 7, there is shown a modification that has the valve disk27 freely and slidably supported on a fixed pin 37 secured to bridge 38,while the valve disk 26 freely and slidably supported on a fixed pin 39is secured to bridge 41. Bridges 38 and 41 are secured by welding toplate 22. Coil springs 42 and 43, and washers 44 and 46 form the biasequivalent to springs 28 and Q9 of FIG. 5, to resiliently seat valvedisks 27 and 26 respectively against plate 22.

It should now be apparent that there has been provided an effectivevalve means for easing the opening and closing of storm doors.

While various changes may be made in the detailed construction, it shallhe understood that such changes shall be within the spirit and scope ofthe present invention as defined by the following claim.

What is claimed is:

In combination, a door having two opposing recesses extendingrespectively from the opposite sides of the door, the sum of the depthsof said recesses being less than the thickness of the door, a Webdisposed between said recesses and forming a rectangular frame for anaperture piercing the door, a valve venting device having a flat valvechassis plate of substantially the size and shape of one of therecesses, said plate having a pair of valve apertures, a pair ofresilient disks each associated with one of said apertures, and springmeans to press each of said disks into closure of the correspondingaperture, cup casings positioned in substantially coplanar relation withthe inside and outside surfaces of the door, and having flangesextending about the periphery of the chassis plate and engagingrespectively the opposite surfaces thereon, said cup casingsrespectively having vent holes therein, bolt References Cited in thefile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,326,358 MacGregor Dec. 30,1919 2,351,874 Parker June 20, 1944 2,624,414 Harrell et a1. Jan. 6,1953 2,774,116 Wolverton Dec. 18, 1956 2,820,475 Hobbs Jan. 21, 1958

